After six dramatic days of work, global towage operator Svitzer highlighted the collaborative efforts of key partners, in coordination with the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), to refloat the Ever Given.
Alongside two dredgers, a total of 13 tugs were involved in the assistance of the salvage operation. Svitzer contributed to the multilateral effort to free the vessel with two tugs and four full crews operating in shifts, spanning some 20 people.
On the morning of Tuesday 23rd March, Svitzer’s tugs were called to the location of the grounded container vessel, some 10 hours of steaming from the company’s base in Port Said. Svitzer engaged with the salvage operation and were deployed at the aft port side, where they pushed to free the vessel for around four hours. Svitzer’s crews were specifically tasked with pushing at this critical part of the vessel because of support provided to the SCA during two previous groundings.
From Wednesday 24th March until early hours of Monday 29th March, Svitzer continued to provide support by pushing the vessel and assisting with refloating trials.
Once the vessel has been freed, Svitzer’s Port Said 2 is escorting Ever Given back to the Bitter Lakes. In the meantime, Port Said 1 is towing one of the dredgers that freed Ever Given to the south of the Canal.
Svizter’s CEO, Kasper Nilaus, commented on the support provided by the organisation,
“After six challenging and nerve-wracking days, and with the eyes of the world on all of us, we are extraordinarily proud of the relentless work that our crews onboard Port Said 1 and 2 have done to expedite the refloating of the Ever Given. At Svitzer, doing difficult things in difficult places is in our DNA, but, even so, this has been one of the more spectacular and difficult tasks we have faced as global towage operator.
“The outstanding project management and orchestration of the SCA has been instrumental to solving this situation in a quick and safe fashion. We would like to thank our crew, the SCA, and all other parties involved in this spectacular salvage operation in the Suez.”
Credit: Svitzer
